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Friday, February 28, 2014

The Skiff Craft Annual Wooden Boat Open House Is This Saturday – And You’re Invited

24- 26 Foot Skiff Craft – Photo courtesy Skiff Craft Boats.

If you live near Columbus, Ohio and want to take a break from the Polar Vortex this weekend, we have some good news for you. If you don’t live near Columbus, Ohio – There’s nothing we can do for you, buy some long underwear! (Click on the Polar Vortex link above – It’s shocking!)

Fellow Woody Boater David Brandenstein from Akron, Ohio contacted us via our Facebook page to let us know that the annual Wooden Boat Open House is this weekend (March 1st) near Columbus, Ohio.

Texx – The Skiff Craft factory is having the annual Open House this Saturday from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. If any of your viewers are interested in attending, please contact Steve at the factory 614-873-4664 during the day. This is a cool opportunity to see boats in various stages of refurbishing, the jigs that current wooden boats are built on (22 feet – 31 feet), wooden boat flea market table (buy or bring things to sell), or just come by to smell the years of varnish in the air. – David

Skiff Craft plant craftsmanship – Photo courtesy Skiff Craft Boats

Here’s some information from the Skiff Craft Boats website. – Texx

Handcrafted Wooden Boats Classically Designed Since 1904.

Handcrafted by artisans. Skiff Craft boats are lovingly made by hand one at a time. Building one takes two to three months, so only a limited number are made each year. A master builder personally selects the materials to be custom milled and machined. Then each boat is meticulously crafted from framework to finish by a team of artisans who ply their time-honored skills. You’ll love the result.

24- 26 Foot Skiff Craft – Photo courtesy Skiff Craft Boats

The finest design and materials. This classic wooden boat is steeped in tradition and built with integrity. The large cockpit creates a feeling of spaciousness and luxury, unlike anything else on the water. Air-dried white oak is selected for the keel and one-piece ribs are steamed and formed. Fir plywood specially ordered from the Pacific Northwest is chosen for the keel-to-gunwhale hull. Quality is everywhere, down to the brass screws and stainless-steel bolts.

24- 26 Foot Skiff Craft interior – Photo courtesy Skiff Craft Boats

31- 33 Foot Skiff Craft – Photo courtesy Skiff Craft Boats

Last summer while we were touring Minnesota, Dave Bortner from Freedom Boat Service arranged for us to take a tour of the huge Tonka Bay Marina (Skiff Craft office) on Lake Minnetonka, which was great – an impressive operation which also stores over 600 boats over the winter. Minor maintenance to your Skiff Craft can be completed at Tonka Bay Marina, and more extensive maintenance work and wood repair / restoration work is sent to the Skiff Craft plant in Plain City, Ohio.

31- 33 Foot Skiff Craft – Photo courtesy Skiff Craft Boats

The Skiff Craft marque is popular in Minnesota, and when we were boating on Lake Minnetonka, the big elegant skiffs were everywhere. – Texx

David also noted that for anyone interested in attending the Wooden Boat Open House this weekend, the Skiff Craft factory is located at:

Troy

Al Benton

Wish I lived close to Columbus, OH. A tour of the Skiff Craft facility would be a great way to dodge the Solar Vortex.

Solar Vortex! An interesting term that I don’t ever recall being used in my 71 years of life. Did someone decide that it needed a fancy name this year? Is it the reason for past “cold winters” in the USA? Why did it not have an official name before? Just curious…

For those who can be at the Skiff Craft Open House tomorrow, take photos and send them to Woody Boater.

Grant Stanfield

We sure are enjoying our 1984 24′ Skiff Craft Hardtop model. These are great boats to carry a crowd comfortably through even rough waters. I love the way they are using even more mahogany trim on the new models.

The picture is shot of our Skiff Craft while underway this fall in the White Cliffs of Alabama area as we headed to Mobile Bay.

floyd r turbo

That’s Big Bob Johnson in his dork hat on the header with our guests from Ontario for the day (who Kathy Rhodes will again have to remind me of their names – she does layout for Toronto ACBS Classic Boat magazine and her husband golfs, lol. actually he’s an officer in the Peel District Police Dept and has the sharpest eye for gator spottin’ I’ve ever seen – must be zero crime rate in Peel District with his eagle eyes).

Dave

Yes, I love these Skiff Crafts… picture of mine (1984 26ft Hardtop) parting the waves on Lake Erie near the islands, where many of these boats are still fishing for Walleye today (…well not today, it’s still frozen, but this spring). Also as mentioned previously many of the Skiff Crafts are the “Gentlemen Runabouts” cruising Lake Minnetonka near the Tonka Bay Marina area. They are great fishing boats and dress-up well with plenty of mahogany for the evening cruise… great all-round rough water boat.

I really enjoy the WoodyBoater Website… has help me get through the Polar Vortex here in Ohio…and the rest of the year too.

Texx

Dave

Also a pic from one of the past Factory Open houses, where the boats return ever 10 or 15 years or so for paint, varnish and repair with hopes to head back out for another 15 or so years before returning.

Texx

Troy

I am a new wood boat owner having recently purchased a 1962 Century Resorter. What is the best way to prepare the boat for the spring launch. I have heard that soaking the boat from the inside using towels is one way, I have thought of backing the trailer, with boat on it, to the water line and allowing it to soak for several days–any ideas–pls respond, I’m thanking you in advance. Rod